MAN AND POSITION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1933, Page 10

MAN AND POSITION

PENALTIES OF INCOGNITO

Two prominent figures in New Zealand shipping and finance * they will, speak from personal Knowledge ol the curious mistakes due to undisclosed identity. The first is the head of one of the great British shipping lines, who happened to be in Sydnev, a gentleman very well known in New Zealand. Strolling down to the company’s wharf he thought he would like to look over a trans-Pacific liner of his company then in port. It was not a day of arrival or sailing and there was nothing doing on the vessel but the discharge of cargo. He mounted the gangway, and was confronted by the man on duty at. the head. “You can't come aboard, sir.” said the guardian. “Why?” asked the head of the company. “Because you have not a pass from the office,” was the ready answer. The shipping magnate, still concealing his identity, took the refusal in good part and walked ashore. After all, he reflected, the man was only doing his duty. But he was recognised by a steward of the ship and saluted. Explanations were afterwards made to the man at the gangway, whose surprise far exceeded his sense of duty.

The second instance is that of a leader in New Zealand banking who loves no other distraction from the worries of banking nearly so much as pottering about a farm. Wood cutting., fencing, weeding, bringing in the cows, any of these tasks afford' him welcome relief from his important arduous daily routine. One day, dressed in old clothes and thoroughly enjoying the freedom of doing what he liked with an axe and a cord of firewood, he caught the eye of a passing primary producer. The farmer halted and for a while watched the way the financier tackled the firewood problem. Then he thought it his duty to speak to the owner of the property and say what ho thought in round set terms about, “these unemployed wasters who are not worth their keep—the way they go about a job.” He left the farm, like a dog rebuked when he was told who “the bloke cuttingfirewood” happened to be, and perhaps he pondered on the size of his own overdraft. However, no one relished the joke with greater zest than the banker himself.